Doncaster torture brothers in bid for lifelong anonymity

Claire Lewis

Two evil Doncaster brothers who tortured and almost killed two young boys in a crime which shocked the country are fighting to keep their identities a secret.

The boys, who were 10 and 11 years old when they struck, have launched a legal bid for lifelong anonymity, with the younger brother now approaching his 18th birthday.

They were granted anonymity until they reached adulthood when they were locked up for a minimum of five years in 2010 for an attack on two boys, aged nine and 11, in which they punched, kicked and stamped on their victims, throttled and cut them with barbed wire, battered them with bricks and branches and plunged cigarettes into their gaping wounds.

The brothers, who said they were 'bored' and had 'nowt else to do,' also dropped part of an old ceramic sink onto the head of one of their victims and attempted to burn one of the boys.

A 20-second video, taken by one the brothers on a mobile phone, captured his sibling taunting and hitting one of his victims as he lay on the ground covered in blood.

One of the victims, desperate for the torture at Brick Ponds, Edlington, to end, begged to die during the 90-minute attack.

Now free, after the Parole Board deemed them no longer a risk to the public, the evil brothers have taken their case to the High Court and in a hearing tomorrow will cite the Human Rights Act in their bid for anonymity.

Their lawyers claim the teenagers will be 'subjected to serious harassment and persecuted' if identified.

They want the brothers to have the the same right to anonymity as the child killers of James Bulger in 1993.

The father of one of the Edlington victims has expressed his anger at the move.

"It's inhuman what they did. Nobody would do that to another person unless there was something seriously wring with their heads," he said.

"People want to know who is living next to them - if they have maniacs down the road.

"I don't agree that they should get lifelong anonymity after what they did."

Derek Wright, who found one of the blood-stained victims wandering around in shock, said: "I can still see his face when he was outside our house. Just his eyes and lips were visible, his face was covered in blood.

"They were animals and I've already told police I'm worried they'll do it again. Why should they have their identities protected?"

The brothers pleaded guilty to grievous bodily harm, robbery and inciting their victims to engage in sexual activity.